U.S. President Barack Obama recently began the latest challenge in his presidential career--starting and maintaining a Twitter account. Now, American citizens all over the world can reach their elected leader through @POTUS on Twitter.

The president aims to foster better citizen participation in the government throughout the remainder of his administration. He believes that opening a social media account would help give Americans a more efficient way to be engaged in pressing social issues that they feel are important to them.

Like Us on Facebook

Conventional public channels to government offices have typically been delegated to staff members, instead of the officials themselves. Thanks to the advent of social media, even the nation's top leaders could easily reach out to every average Joe who needs their help.

Obama's personal Twitter page, which he launched yesterday, began with a simple and rather humorous message: "Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really!" Then it was followed immediately by a quick lament: "Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account." The message aired sometime around 11:38 a.m. before the president's speech in Camden, New Jersey. Just 24 minutes afterward, @POTUS already has more than 100,000 followers. The president probably has not even finished his Camden speech by the time his Twitter page hit a million followers.

For his banner photo, Obama used a picture during last March's commemoration of the 50^th anniversary of the bloody Selma civil rights' march. In the photo, the president stands with Alabama representative John Lewis on one side and Amelia Boynton Robinson on the other. His description reads: "Dad, husband, and 44^th President of the United States."

Currently, @POTUS is following 65 people as of last count,  including Bill Clinton, George Bush, and of course, Michelle Obama's account, @FLOTUS.

Other world leaders who have taken to social media to better reach out to constituents include British Prime Minister James Cameron, who has over one million followers, and Pope Francis, who took over the papal Twitter account launched by Pope Benedict the XVI, who signed up in December 2012. Currently, the pope's Twitter account has more than 6.1 million followers.

Tagspotus, Obama, flotus